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Monday, April 30, 2018

Team Sunbeamers has it's first event this season with "Rave For Relay." Come to the Happy Vixen beach club for a four hour event. The theme is rave, so get your glowsticks and dance to the tunes. The talented DJ Snowbuns and the dazzling DJ Khyra provide the music. Donations to the Relay kiosk will be made in lieu of tips. There's also a contest for the best dressed in theme.

With the Relay season in full swing, it's time for the
"Bid Me" events again. The Relay Rockers have had great success with
their "Bid Me Bald" fundraisers. For the Sunbeamers, we usually do
something a little different. This week, three of the team are putting
themselves on the line with three different "Bid Me"s. Sunweaver Chieftess Rita Mariner has "Bid Me To The Dogs." Liska Fuchs will be doing "Bid Me Goat." And Bixyl Shuftan, myself, will be doing "Bid Me Pantsless."

"Bid Me Pantsless" was inspired by a running joke between me and one particular Sunbeamer. In this one, I'm putting my trousers on the line. Should enough cash be raised, for a week or so depending on the amount I can wear a toga, kilt, robe, or similar garment, or go about in a tiny or micro avie which are too small for my clothes. I just can't wear any pants. The exception to this rule is when doing an interview or other Newser work.

The minimum for me to drop my pants ... , um, maybe I should rephrase that, go pantsless, is 5000 Linden dollars. For each additional 5000 Lindens, another week is added to the time I'll be feeling drafty (14,999 Lindens means 2 weeks, 15K means three). And the amount in the "pantsless" kiosk has to be greater than the "pants" kiosk. So those wanting to help me out can still help me keep my trousers.

Liska Fuchs is almost never seen without her red vixen avatar. That will change should 5000 Lindens be raised in her "Bid Me Goat" fundraiser. Each additional 5000 Lindens, rounded up, means another week of tin-can dinner jokes. The one out, like the "Bid Me Pantsless," is the "Keep Liska Foxy" kiosk. As those familiar with the Sunweavers know, we already have a resident goat: Cynthia Farshore. So the event has sometimes been called "Bid Me Cynthia's sister. There may be one additional catch other than having a shorter tail and cloven hooves for feet. Cynthia is one of the hardest working Sunweavers. So Liska might end up being expected to bust her behind for a week or two.

The inspiration for Rita's "Bid Me" comes from a 1990's cartoon, "Road Rovers." With an avatar of the character "Colleen," Rita is offering to wear it for a week or longer in "Bid Me to the Dogs." Like the other two events, 5000 Lindens means Rita will be wearing the avatar for a week with each additional 5000 Lindens, rounded up, resulting in an additional week. And like the others, there will be another kiosk where people can bid to keep the "boss bunny" as she is.

The kiosks are in the back room of Club Cutlass, at Sunweaver Bay (114/117/757), and will be up until 8PM Friday following the close of the party that night. The results will be tallied and made final.

As of now, the Sunbeamers are well into Platinum level, having reached it a week and a half ago. As of the writing of this article, they have raised over 264,000 Linden dollars, and are expected to hit Jade level sometime this season. This is a level they have never reached before. With these three "Bid Me" events, the team hopes to be significantly closer to it.

So for a little bit of fun, come on over and bid us pantsless, nannygoat and doggie.

Officially, The Fantasy Faire ended last night. Fortunately, the sims will still be up for another week. So if you couldn't make it over, or if the lag was just too much, you have several more days to see the sims and shop around. The quest has been extended as well. So if you need a few more days to solve the House of Garland Quest, you're getting them.

Maybe you have heard the rumor that in an attempt to bribe their way out
of Jail, the Lindens promised us some extra days for the Faire.
Absolutely TRUE! I confirmed with the Lindens earlier today (April 27) that the
Fairelands will remain open to us until May 7!

So have more fun at the Faire, though don't forget about the Relaystock that will be taking place this weekend, or other Relay events such as tonight's "Rave for Relay" by Team Sunbeamers.

Second Life has a number of performers. But there's only one Odd Ball. It's been about ten years ago since Tuna Oddfellow's unique performances started. With it's unique special effects, it's been described by some as like a psychedelic trip without the side-effects, there's been nothing else like it. It had been a while since I'd last seen one of it's events, but Friday night, I dropped in on a show. Tuna is "Still Odd after all these years."

His next show will be on Sunday at 12 Noon SL time. Jana Kyomoon aka JaNaMooN will be playing the music.

Saturday, April 28, 2018

The Fantasy Fair has been a big thing this week. But it wasn't the only Relay event this week. On Wednesday April 25, Relay for Life Team "Game of Thrones" held a fundraiser event. Called "The Hairy Bear and Maiden Fair," there were a number of prim bears around that occasionally growled.

There were also a number of games around, such as a wack-a-mole spinnoff "Wack A Pirate." And there was lots of dancing to music.

Following the event, the team announced, "We want to give a special thank you to everyone that came out to the GOT COOP TEAM event HAIRY BEAR AND MAIDEN FAIR We raised 22400 lindens in two hours. Way to go everyone. You are all assume thank you so much."

I have set up another vendor with a mesh Tuxedo with tails that I made in honor of my beloved friend Addy who lost her battle with cancer last winter.. It is designed to match the Addy Gown that is also up for sale to fight cancer..

All proceeds go to Relay for Life to support the American Cancer Society.

"It's pretty obvious there isn't much growth right now," Hamlet quoted Gindipple, though the Sansar user remained optimiastic "I
wouldn't be here if I didn't think it was set to win the game. So it's
got a ways to go yet. They've been a bit slow on development, but there
is some recent indications that they are starting to focus some on what I
feel is important, allowing us programmers to create rich interactive
scenes."

So why aren't people using Sansar? It's no big secret that Linden Lab has been looking beyond it's existing virtual world for users, "casting a wide net." But as the numbers show, it's failed to get more than a tiny number. So are practically all virtual world users in Second Life? Perhaps not as statistics about VR Chat show even after going down from a high of 20,000 users during the "Ugandan Knuckles" meme, this other next-generation virtual world still gets several thousand users a day.

Still, even the successful VR Chat is behind Second Life which after fifteen years still has tens of thousands of people online at any given time. With only one Sansar user for about every several hundred Second Life users, it's clear where Linden Lab's future, at least for the next decade, lies.

Montecito Bay has a number of clubs. But there's only one "Flying Pickle Lounge." The club with the funny name it's fans "relish" appeared over the community not long ago. We recently had a few words with it's owner, Sheba Metaluna. It turns out the club's been around for a while, and had been flying from place to place before it finally had a home. To the locals, they make a big "dill" out of it.

"Organic chemistry tends to follow certain rules. Starting in the 1950’s,
we began to find ways that transition metals (e.g. chromium, iron,
nickel, rhodium, gold and many others) could bend the rules of classic
organic chemistry and facilitate chemical transformations which would
otherwise be onerous. One example of the utility of transition metals as
applied to organic chemistry is in catalysis, i.e. the transformation
of starting materials into products through an easy-to-traverse sequence
of steps. Today, catalysts mediate a wide range of reactions, from
improving the quality of air (e.g. catalytic converters) to the
production of plastics, medicines and other chemical transformations. In
this talk we will cover the basics of “organometallic” catalysis
reactions such as “oxidative addition”, “insertion”, and reductive
elimination. We will use these steps to illustrate how a metal can
catalyze a reaction without itself being changed, through lecture and
scripted objects. What we have learned about catalysts which dissolve
has helped us to understand how metal surfaces mediate similar
transformations."

Thursday, April 26, 2018

The Relay Rockers are pleased to announce that Bid The Lindens Bald will make its triumphant return to the Relay For Life of Second Life April 30th thru May 9th! Bid Me Bald is an event, created by the Relay Rockers in 2007 to honor those who lose their hair to cancer treatments. Participants agree to go bald 1 day for each L$5000 raised.

In 2017 3 Teams of Lindens competed in a Bid Me Bald Challenge and raised L$1,478,599 ($5686 USD) and the Concierge Team went bald for a total of 297 days.

This year's teams are from Product Operations, Support Leaders and Support Agents

The event is a challenge and the team which raises the least will once again go bald for the amount of days equal to the total of the 1st Place team. The days will be shared among the team members.

New this year, Bid The Lindens Bald will be held in conjunction with the Rocker's signature multiteam event "RELAYSTOCK". RelayStock runs Friday May 4th, through Sunday May 6th and will feature entertainment provided by individual Relay For Life teams and featuring live performances by Nina Bing, Dimi von Ludwig, Keeba Tammas and the Tiny Maniacs and Maximillion Kleene. The event will be held on is own region 'RelayStock' and is open to the entire Second Life community.

The Fantasy Fair had another big "Jail and Bail" event. Wednesday April 25, those in the Fantasy Fair and Relay Volunteer groups were alerted to several cages in the Willows of Nienna sim. There were Lindens and moles inside, and they were being detained until a certain amount of Linden dollars were raised.

Those Lindens... in trubble agin !!! Goin against the Long Paw of da Law. We have done some questioning and had nothing to say but ... some time in da pokey. (you know ya all have things you wish to register against dem too ... so COME ON DOWN to the Willow of Nienna and we will take care of this little mess . Willows of Nienna (126,115,60)

There were a number of Lindens in the slammer, which included Patch Linden, Forge Linden, Ami Linden, Governor Linden, Keira Linden, and Bianca Linden. There were also some Moles given the jail treatment, which included Naughty Mole.

"EXPLAIN TO ME!!!! HOW you CAUSED MY MOUSE TO GO BAD DURING JAIL AND BAIL!" Oldesoul, in a tiny "Dinky" avatar in a Keystone Cops uniform demanded of the Lindens, "BAD BAD BAD!" The residents in the audience made demands of their own, " GIVE US MORE PEOPLE ALLOWED ON A HOMESTEAD SIM!" "MOAR GROUP SLOTS!!!!! 100 AT LEAST!!!"

Eventually. Patch offered to reveal where Magellan Linden, whom had supposedly died months ago, was if enough was raised. And soon there he was. Someone mused that after a certain amount he should strip out of his outfit. Magellan answered, "Ain't nobody wanna see that!"

More than 312,000 Lindens had been raised at the Jail and Bail, bringing the Fantasy Fair total so far to over 6,198,000 Linden dollars. An impressive sum.

It was almost two weeks ago on April 13 that applications for this year's Second Life Birthday celebration began being accepted. Among the organizations applying, the Second Life Newser. Once again, the talented Silvia Ametza is lending her skills and time, along with her friend Aimeelou Destiny, to build our exhibit. She showed me her progress shortly after her building started. Exactly what it will be, well, we're not saying just yet other than it will reflect the theme of Crystal Anniversary in some way. Stay tuned for more sneak peaks of the SL Newser SLB exhibit, and that of the Sunweaver community.

This
June, Second Life turns 15 and we’re planning some fun ways to honor
this long-standing community and invite some of the rest of the world to
come check out what makes us so special! Stay tuned to this blog for
more details about events to come and read on to find out about the
first of many - our annual Music Fest - sponsored by Linden Lab.

In
recent years we’ve taken the popular idea of music festivals and
brought them into the virtual world - all the music, merriment, and good
times without the sunburn. This year will mark the 4th annual Music
Fest in celebration of Second Life - and we can’t wait to get grooving.

Since
we started Music Fest in Second Life, we’ve held an audition showcase
to highlight some of the musical talent in the Second Life community.
Many of you have been performing for years in virtual venues all over
the grid, and we’d love to have you come showcase your talent at the
tryouts for this summer Music Fest. All genres are welcome! From bands
to solo acts, rock and roll to electronica - we encourage anyone to sign
up for consideration. The Second Life Music Fest is an opportunity to
perform at one of the biggest celebrations in Second Life, and it’s a
paid gig!

Unlike the performers volunteering for the main Second Life Birthday event, Linden Lab promises to pay the musicians in it's event a little cash. Those trying out for auditions need to fill out a form online (link here). Musicians are requested to define their type of music, and while not required are requested to provide links of any music they have online.

The audition times are Friday June 1 at 12 Noon to 2PM, and Saturday June 2 from 6 to 8PM SL time.

Come and join us for this OOC GOT RFL event all are invited to attend this medieval faire. DJ Regan spinning the tunes, dance, games merriment come one come all! Join us as we chase off this horrible disease cancer from out lives! Help us to gain the momentum to make things better. Join the Hairy Bear and Maiden Faire on Wednesday April 25th 6pm-8:30pm

The SL15B "crystal" theme this year aims to inspire our Residents to
reflect on the past 15 years and peek into the future to explore the
next 15 years of Second Life. To kick things off, we've rounded up some
interesting statistics and facts about the past and present state of
Second Life in this new infographic ...

The post was made by Brett Linden.

The last time Linden Lab had an infographic was the one for the SL10B five years ago. Both mention the number of accounts, 36 million then compared to 57 million now (obviously only a small part which are active). Both also mention the number of new account registrations per month, 400,000 per month five years ago compared to 350,000 today, a loss of one eighth. A total of over 217,000 years spent inworld by all avatars combined in 2013 compared to a combined total of 482,000 years today. 2.1 million virtual goods were available for sale five years ago compared to five million today, more than double back then. The top three destination categories in the Linden's Destination Guide have changed a little. Five years ago it was Games, Events, and Adventure and Fantasy. Today, the top three are Games, Editor's Picks, and Photography Spots.

Monday, April 23, 2018

The Fantasy Faire got off to a good start in it's first few days. Besides the many great sims to explore, some of the people took the time to wear some interesting avatars. Among them, the Colossus avatars that have been available since 2012, but I've seldom seen them except during Fantasy Fair events. There are two in this picture. The smaller one, the lady in the white dress, was several times my height. But the male was well over a hundred feet high, maybe two hundred. I was a small speck near his shoe.

There were also some "Jail and Bail" events. The one getting attention was when Jessica Lyon, the head of Team Firestorm, was detained by the Farelands "Pawlice." Jessica was given a number of charges from deliberately slowing down debugging of the Firestorm viewer to taking Oldesoul's parking spot to squirrel porn. This was despite counter-accusations from someone in the audience that the Linden viewer team had bribed the Pawlice with waffles. Residents were invited to put money in two kiosks, one to bail her out, the other to keep her in longer. After over a couple hours, the bail side won 75,000 to 58404."Thank you Jessica for helping all of us Battling Cancer!"

And yours truly gave the Fairelands Quest a try. In the quest, you answer a dragonfae's plea for help to search for the Queen's father. As you progress, you get small prizes. The game is HUD-based, and with the lag there were times I had to replay a video in my browser, or detatch and reattatch the HUD. Despite the bugs resulting from the lag, I found it to be a fun game. Already, there has been at least one whom claimed to have finished.

20 Entries Maximum will be allowed:
Registration form must be return by May 1st, 2018

Dance Party Sunday: 9am-6pm
Winners announced during Sunday's Dance Party.

All cakes must be removed from sim by 6:30 pm on Sunday May 20th, 2018

Public can come to vote anytime during the contest.

The contest is this:

Each team or individual will design a cake that represents the concept of RELAY, a theme central to Relay for Life. There is a prim limit of 25 prims per cake. Each team or individual can only enter one cake into the contest.
A table number will be assign to each team/individual once registration form is receive.

Cakes must be original work, no store bought. It is up to the team/individual that enters the contest what rights will be on the cakes. Please remember if you keep it full perm people can copy the item. We suggest that you make the cake so no one can copy it while on display.

Judging: Judging will be done by the voting public. They will choose who they think best represents the concept of RELAY. Voting boxes will be at each table.

Teams/individuals will be allowed to include a texture for their cakes with the title of their cake and their team name etc. This will be next to each table.

Prizes:
1st: 2000 lindens
2nd: 1000 lindens
3rd: 500 lindens

Sponsored by Game of Thrones Cooperative

** This Event Is On A Sim Rated: A (Adult) the sim rating will be change for this event for Moderate for the day of the dance.
No nudity, no children on an adult sim event (this is not only ACS rules but Linden rules), no sexual activity. **

Sunday, April 22, 2018

Taken at the Happy Vixen. Stormtroopers have gotten a reputation for bad shots as the heroes they pursue have a way of escaping. The leading theory is some of the clones from the Clone Wars have deteriorated with age. On the other hand, the "redshirts" on Federation ships have a way of dying a lot in space. Just how are they able to keep finding men to fill the ranks has been less easily explained.

THIS WEEK at Seanchai Libraries,
WE RELAY, BECAUSE WE CAN ..... and because there is not one of us whose lives have not been touched in one way or another by Cancer. We are at Fantasy Faire LitFest this week, benefiting Relay for Life and the American Cancer Society's special Hope Hostel Project with Kenyatta National Hospital.

Saturday, April 21, 2018

From Malya Violetsong (DaughterOfArboria Resident). She talked me into playing the MMO Terra a bit, so I decided on the name "Gaskyl" for my character while she had one, Kacina. Going along, we came across one with a name very similar to my Second Life name, "Bix?! You has a twin?! 'Bixano'?!" She would send me this picture

Los Dos Amigos y Una Amiga?!

Gaskyl (Bixyl) the Ferret, Bixano the Puss in Boots, and Kacina the sideways horse rider?!

The guy was Away From Keyboard, so no telling where the name came from. Maybe he was a reader of the Newser who was giving Tera a try as well.

Friday, April 20, 2018

Some clubs are difficult to distinguish from others, appear and disappear after only a few months. And some stand out and stand the test of time. Among the later is Eternal Desires. After ten years, the club has lasted through changing times, drama, even the deaths of some important staff. It's also succeeded in achieving what many clubs strive for but never quite get: a clearly diverse following of different types of avatars. The Newser recently interviewed it's owner, Blackened Merlin, and she had much to say about the club, and those who helped make it what it is.

If there's an event in the Relay for Life in Second Life that's as loved as the Relay Weekend, it's the Fantasy Faire. For ten days in fifteen sims, there's plenty to see, do, and experience. There will be clothes and avatars and more to buy with the money going to fund cancer research. There are events such as the "Jail and Bail", the Literary Festival, G.R.R. Martin Day, the Xanadu Roller Party, and others. There is the Fairelands Quest. And of course the well-done scenery to explore around in.

Dropping in with my alt on day one of the Faire yesterday, it was a bit glitchy at times, with my avatar occasionally turning invisible, crashing when trying to teleport, etc. "Welcome to the Relay Weekend," one guy put it, comparing it to the big event in which the sims are overwhelmed by the sheer number of avatars. But I did find some goodies, notably a freebie "The Minkie" Bento avatar that could be worn on the spot upon getting it when clicking on the vendor. There was also a "Cheer the Dragonfae" avatar for 199 Linens. And who is Cheer? He's your guide in the Fairelands Quest this year.

For those with less powerful computers, you may need to wait until late in the evening or early in the morning to enjoy the Faire better. But for Second Life enthusiasts, especially Relayers, this is an event you won't want to miss.

The Sunweaver community will be taking part in the Second Life Birthday celebration. With Shockwave Yareach and Cynthia Farshore focusing on a build for the Relay for Life, the construction for the SLB exhibit was left to Becky "Sha" Shamen. A couple days ago, she showed us how much of the structure she had made.

The full size of the structure, as well as what it will be, the Newser isn't saying quite yet. But we can give a little clue about it with this picture. Stay tuned for more sneak peeks, and clues.

This month's Mod Monday at Montecito Bay will be on the 23rd, at 7pm, in the redesigned Avagora Mall! Featuring Caboodle/Bullseye, Visual Magick, Twilight Imaginarum and newcomer Steedful Things!
Hope to see you there! LMs will be given when it's time to party.

Darwin’s Theory of Evolution was a landmark event in science,
providing an explanation for the origin of the diverse lifeforms on the
Earth. Notably, it was largely a construct of deduction from
observations. In the over 150 years of the existence of this theory,
scientists have provided the nuts and bolts of how evolution works.
Notable discoveries include DNA and how it encodes genes, how genes lead
to characteristics, the ability to compare genomes, and experimentally
measure population dynamics. What Darwin Never Knew (PBS 2009) covers
some of the molecular examples of how evolution works. This presentation
will summarize the key examples from the documentary. You are welcome
to watch the documentary in advance and ask specific questions; however,
the talk is designed for those unfamiliar with the documentary topics.

Thursday, April 19, 2018

When the Relay season started, the Sunbeamer team went of to a great beginning. Thanks to funds that had been collected all winter, the team started at Gold level fundraising rank. The money has continued to come in, and Wednesday night hit the 250,000 Linden mark, or $1000 USD. This puts the team in Platinum rank, with Jade as it's next goal.

SUNBEAMERS Are now Officially Platinum!

beamers: we are now officially Platinum Level, so we can strap on our big person pants and shoot for Jade Level Now and have some fun along the way.

The Sumbeamers have never before reached Jade rank, but this very well may be the year the team achieves it.

There's a new club in Montecito Bay called "The Flying Pickle." This new venue has nothing to do with "Pickle Rick," or the 1993 movie "The Pickle." But rather, it was created to help celebrate the birthday of one of the staff, and has remained up after the celebration ended.

From it's exterior to the interior and of course it's name, there's nothing serious about the Flying Pickle. It's a fun, silly place that's become part of the Montecito Bay collection of clubs.

From Draxtor Despress on April 17, "Guided by principal investigators Tom Boellstorff and Donna ZImmerman
Davis, the Ethnographia group is examining how avatar embodiment and
place-making in virtual worlds like Second Life influences people with
visible and invisible disabilities.
More about this 3-year National Science Foundation funded study,
conducted by University of California, Irvine and University of Oregon
can be found at http://www.ourdigitalselves.com/
If you like to join this community in SL please meet up at Ethnographia Island here: https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Ethnographia/18/29/22

Wednesday, April 18, 2018

A week ago, the Kultivate Spring Art Show was taking place. For the third year in a row, the event sponsored by Kultivate Magazine showcased numerous works of art from a number of artists. Gemma Cleanslate was there, and took a number of pictures.

When people think of someone being banned from a sim, they usually think of a troublemaker. But what if the person had made numerous attempts to reconcile differences? In a reader submission sent to the Newser, MajikVixen (Bluevioletvixen Lorefield) describes her situation with the Faerie Crossing community, of which despite her efforts to smooth out differences she ended up banned from the area. Here, MajikVixen presents her side of the story. But the most important thing, she feels, is that there can be a life after banning for a resident of Second Life.

The Fantasy Faire, one of the big yearly events of the Relay for Life in Second Life is almost here. The event is noted for a number of things, notably the fantastic and picturesque builds across it's sims, which number fifteen this year. There are a number of items up for sale of which the proceeds go to charity. And if that's not enough, there are a number of events taking place there, such as the "Jail and Bail' fundraisers, roleplays, readings, and more. And of course there's the Fairelands Quest which if you complete you get a special prize. The event goes on for ten days to April 29.